Myspace And Kids

[havunen191]

So far this school year I have recieved two news letters home. With warnings about the kind of things going on in myspace. Did you all know they have the most preditory aressts for people seeking children. From what I have heard every 3 out of five unknown people that are talking to the kids are preditors. :scared:
I have told my eleven year old to stay out of there so many times its realy not funny any more. I have checked her friends list and profiles that she has made and I would realy question some of the ages being told.She has been grounded from computer over and over again. I now have to install a $80 dollar program to stop here from getting in there.
Anyone else out there having problems with thier kids and this cite?

 

[lovethesea]

Xangia is another one........... :scared: Its getting beyond nuts for our kids to have to navigate through this nonsence. What starts out as being just a fun thing for them and their friends......can turn out horribly for some. Even some of the pics people are putting up on their pages is next to

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.......and some are.
Thats why I don't mind the IM thing through AOL. At least the only one's they can talk to are the one's they have authorized.
Have you heard of a program called Spector Pro? Is this the same program you are talking about?

 

[happyvac]

Lots of my friends have MySpaces...I for one don't, I don't feel comfortable placing my picture up and telling strangers where I live, how old I am...it's just creepy.
All my AIM buddies I know in real life, and I don't talk to people who I don't know or go into chat-rooms.
Yeah, yeah, I'm paranoid. But paranoia rules

 

[lovethesea]

I will also tell you from experience that there is a worm out there that is in some of the chat rooms. A friend of ours got one on their computer. SDBOT. something or other.
Major nightmare trying to clean it off the computer.

 

[speg]

My family has started letting their kids go on myspace and i'm always complaining about it.
I think myspace should be an adult only site or they should really crack down on things like language/

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/etc. It claims to not allow

[hr]
.. but seeing a picture of a girl with tiny stars on her chest is

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in my book. I get messages every so often that say something like this (from a girl) "Hi, I thought your page was awesome.. well check out my website sometime if you get the chance www.(insert ---- site here).com. I wouldnt doubt one bit that some of the kids are getting those sites mailed to them and they shouldnt be. We all also know that a lot of kids arent going to put their correct age down.. it's "cool" to be older.
I've been on the net since I was 14.. and like a lot of people say.. it's a great thing.. but also a very bad/dangerous thing. It's a shame that so much bad is on it.
I think the best thing you can do is just install that program and just monitor your kids while they're on the internet.. as a parent NEVER let a child thats under 18 have a computer in their room where they can close the door and do who knows what. Keep one computer in the house and keep it in the family room where it's in plain view of everybody. Also keep a close eye on your history folder

 

[havunen191]

lovethesea I know what you mean about aol even now I check her on that because she started adding names on there of friends she was making. What a nightmare having to constantly be checking her friends profile's and the ones that don't have any I delete on her. She even thought she was being smart and deleteing the history. Until I informed her that I still know my way around a computer better than she thinks and can still find out where she has been.
Speg when she signed on she used my e-mail now I get all kinds of junk stuff. And as far as computers we have one main one in the house in the what we call the pit!! Its a sun room off our kitchen that we have set up for the kids den. I can see the computer from the kitchen so there is no pulling the wool over my eyes. And they are not to touch my laptop.

 

[mythrenody]

I have a Myspace. Only my friends that i know and seen in real life are on my lists and some awsome bands! I'm not on it much,except when im looking for some new tunes. But I've heard on the news that some guy went to a girls house,kinda scary

 

[rberhow]

Havunen-i'm just curious, where do you look if she has deleted the history. Do you check the cookies or something? Like i said, i'm just curious as to how else you can check. Thanks for the alert.

 

[happyvac]

I believe there's some sort of cache on the computer...look under the Tools/Options deal in your browser.
Also, go to Start/Explore/Cookies. There's a record of the sites you've visited...it's kind of messed up with coding and such but you can find URLs.
I remember my dad once rifled through a history of every image of I'd ever seen...luckily, I'm not a pervert

 

[havunen191]

yes cookies is one of the ways. but dead give away is when they delete the history.

 

[lovethesea]

Spector Pro software will allow you to pull up everything.....every sentence, website,chat room, IM, etc if your so inclined.

 

[37g joe]

Like any thing people can misbehave on it. basicly what Myspace is wher you can stay in contact with friends and listen to cool blogs or be apart of different groups their are even saltwater Awuarium groups on it also I like alot of Christian Rock wich they have websites on it. I do believe they need to crack down on people posting obsceene material but even Yahoo Profiles have peiople who post obsceene materaial on it the problem with Myspace is that thier are curently 52,185,345 profiles on Myspace so yes their are some bad people on it that make it look bad but most of the websites are Clean. I have got back in contact with Old friends who I had no other way to get in contact with but found them on myspace. Friends who I have not seen in years I was able to find. But that comes with a price people are able to prey on children using the same searches. My son is almost 2 years old but when He gets older I well not allow him to be on sites like mypace because of these type of people until my son is mature and smart enough to deal with what is being thrown at him.
So finally Myspace is a great site if you use it how it is ment to be used but Children and Teens who arnt mature enough to deal with certain aspects of myspace should not be allowed on myspace or the internet at all. Easier said then done Right?

 

[1journeyman]

Just one more reason why kids shouldn't have internet access without adult supervision...

 

[socal57che]

Originally Posted by 1journeyman
Just one more reason why kids shouldn't have internet access without adult supervision...
I agree.
We just set up a page (not myspace) for my daughter to post b-day party pics for her friends to see. We oversee all of her internet and e-mail activity. After looking around myspace we decided the content didn't meet our standards. Even the links posted here contained profanity(re: myspace post). No thanks.

 

[jdragunas]

you can also check the temporary internet files...

 

[swlover]

Originally Posted by Havunen191
So far this school year I have recieved two news letters home. With warnings about the kind of things going on in myspace. Did you all know they have the most preditory aressts for people seeking children. From what I have heard every 3 out of five unknown people that are talking to the kids are preditors. :scared:
I have told my eleven year old to stay out of there so many times its realy not funny any more. I have checked her friends list and profiles that she has made and I would realy question some of the ages being told.She has been grounded from computer over and over again. I now have to install a $80 dollar program to stop here from getting in there.
Anyone else out there having problems with thier kids and this cite?
Absolutely...we found our 14 yr olds myspace and blew a fuse! We found out that 2 guys 29 and 23 were talking up a storm with her, asking her out and all sorts of things. In her profile it states how old she is and what school she went to...well we went in and got a hold of these guys, told them to leave her alone or we would hunt them down and you can guess the rest..they live very close by too! I was really upset, we sat her down and didn't mince words, told her what they were after and any man that is interested in a 14 yr old girl is a pervert..not a friend. We Deleted her profile and she is banded from internet sites like that-for her sake not to be mean. We have changed the password on our computer also just incase, as teenagers will do, go on those sites again. Parents have to take charge, these kids just don't know how easy it is for a preditor to find out who you are, where you live, what school you go to, who your friends are and to stalk you, kidnap and kill you-we took a self defence coarse this summer-I was amazed at how quickly a person can come up behind you and choke you out and get you into a car...it takes 2 minutes to choke someone out to where they pass out and put you into a car and leave. Less than that if they hit you with something and knock you out-It opened my eyes on alot of things-I recommend every woman and child take this coarse..it could save your life.

 

[5280_humu]

It's way to easy to blame a web site . Don't get me wrong Places like that should be adult only . But what really needs to happen is parents need to take back some responsability. Tomany parents are so caught up in being busy that they forget to raise their children. The internet has become a baby sitter. We all need to take a look at what drives kids to the internet. and make some simple changes to our lives to keep our kids safe. It's hard to belive that few years agon the internet was a small part of life and now WE can't live with out it. It's just sad to me that innocence has been left behind in this high tech world. I remeber when we wrote paper notes and passed them in the hall and then the contents were more about who liked who and who didn'y like who. Now they can go on line and have lists of ---- sites as well as instant mesage chat with anybody and everybody. Websites are only a symptom of a larger problem. My wife works for a mobile phone company and she is in the billing dept. She tells me all kinds of stories aboput parent with 1000^ phone bills where the "kids " lines are calling out of state and calling at all hours of night and day. And insted of taking the phone away the parents will call in and argue that the charges are wrong because the child is in bed at that time of night or was in school. She has also told me of grown adults that use there phones to access chat rooms online and have bills well over 1000 a month. Everybody wants to play the blind role untill something bad happens and then they want to put on the victim glasses and say HOW did this happen.

 

[37g joe]

Originally Posted by 5280_humu
It's way to easy to blame a web site . Don't get me wrong Places like that should be adult only . But what really needs to happen is parents need to take back some responsability. Tomany parents are so caught up in being busy that they forget to raise their children. The internet has become a baby sitter. We all need to take a look at what drives kids to the internet. and make some simple changes to our lives to keep our kids safe. It's hard to belive that few years agon the internet was a small part of life and now WE can't live with out it. It's just sad to me that innocence has been left behind in this high tech world. I remeber when we wrote paper notes and passed them in the hall and then the contents were more about who liked who and who didn'y like who. Now they can go on line and have lists of ---- sites as well as instant mesage chat with anybody and everybody. Websites are only a symptom of a larger problem. My wife works for a mobile phone company and she is in the billing dept. She tells me all kinds of stories aboput parent with 1000^ phone bills where the "kids " lines are calling out of state and calling at all hours of night and day. And insted of taking the phone away the parents will call in and argue that the charges are wrong because the child is in bed at that time of night or was in school. She has also told me of grown adults that use there phones to access chat rooms online and have bills well over 1000 a month. Everybody wants to play the blind role untill something bad happens and then they want to put on the victim glasses and say HOW did this happen.

I could not agree with you more. Parents dont monitor thier children Like they should. what gets me is howmany 9 -12 year old you see at malls and stores by thier selves or with a few friends Thier Age. what parent in ther right mind allows kids to wander around without supervision. Then they wonder how in the world thier kids got involved in all the things they do. It would be nice if we did not worry about all these things hapening but The world is a dangerous place. Parents need to grow up first and take responsibility thats what being a parent is all about. Parenting is not a hobby that you can take some time off of its a 24/7 commitment. Stop trying to be your kids friends and start being role models.

 

[speg]

That brings up a funny story with me... I used to have AOL when they would send out those 'so many minutes free' disks.. (yes, I know they still do). I guess after I used up those free minutes they started charging me per minute.. anyways at the end of the month my mom got a $1000 AOL bill in the mail She wasnt too happy.. she called them up and one of the ladies at AOL said that my mom should press charges against me haha. In the end AOL decided to drop all charges.

 

[jdragunas]

Originally Posted by 37g Joe
I could not agree with you more. Parents dont monitor thier children Like they should. what gets me is howmany 9 -12 year old you see at malls and stores by thier selves or with a few friends Thier Age. what parent in ther right mind allows kids to wander around without supervision. Then they wonder how in the world thier kids got involved in all the things they do. It would be nice if we did not worry about all these things hapening but The world is a dangerous place. Parents need to grow up first and take responsibility thats what being a parent is all about. Parenting is not a hobby that you can take some time off of its a 24/7 commitment. Stop trying to be your kids friends and start being role models.
not only do you see 9-12 year olds wandering around alone, they're dressed like whores! I see so many 10-year-olds wearing mini-skirts so short you can almost see their "stuff". It's ridiculous... how can you let your kids out of the house like that? if my daughter ever wore something like that, she'd be grounded until she turned 18!